“

Corinth, MS Railroad Depot & Tishomingo Hotel

Life in a cave during the Siege of Vicksburg

Gen. John C. Pemberton Vicksburg Commander

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

The original national flag of the Confederate States of America. Confusion between this Confederate flag and the Stars and Stripes in battle caused its replacement.

The Civil War brought freedom to African

Americans in Mississippi and the nation. But

the war ravaged the state physically, leaving in

its wake ruined farms, plantations and towns,

twisted rails and a devastated infrastructure

and economy. Nearly 200 engagements took

place in Mississippi, as Union and Confederate

armies fought to capture, destroy or control

vital means of transportation: rivers, rails

and roads.

On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the

second state to secede from the Union. Within

weeks, Mississippi joined other southern states

to form the Confederate States of America.

Thousands of Mississippians rushed to enroll

in locally raised military companies with such

ferocious names as “Yankee Hunters,” “Rockport

Steel Blades,” “Abe’s Rejectors,” “Crystal Springs

Southern Rights” and “Morton Pine Knots.”

At Vicksburg on January 9, the same day as the

secession vote, a militia cannon fired the state’s

first shot at the steamer A.O. Tyler. Two days

later, the “Biloxi Rifle Guards” occupied Fort

Massachusetts on Ship Island and replaced the

Stars and Stripes with the magnolia-adorned

flag of the Sovereign Republic of Mississippi. On

April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort

Sumter, and the Civil War began in earnest.

Mississippi was ill equipped to fight the

war, but many citizens were overflowing in

spirit, confidence and resolve. Thousands of

Mississippians departed for distant fronts in

Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia to fight. Three

brigades of state infantry and elements of cavalry

and artillery ultimately became part of General

Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Most of

the remaining state soldiers served in the western

While the earliest battles took place farther east,

Mississippi soon felt the effects of the war through

shortages and rising prices. Women began using

substitutes for coffee and other staples which had

once been easily obtainable.

By 1862, Mississippi’s forests and fields

furnished supplies for the home front. Salt was

boiled from seawater or leached from under

smokehouses. Plots and acreage previously set

aside for cotton gave way to corn and other plants

necessary for sustenance. Woodlands provided

wild hogs, natural herbs, spices, home remedies

and even refuge during the approach of Union

armies. Rivers, streams and the seashore provided

fish in abundance. Along the Gulf Coast, mullet

saved people from starvation and is still referred

to as “Biloxi bacon.”

Before long, news of the deaths of loved ones to

disease or battle began filtering home. Because

regiments were organized locally, when a unit

sustained losses in battle, the entire community

was affected. To replenish losses in the army,

the Conscription Act was passed in 1862, and

Mississippi sent more sons into battle.

Union armies made incursions into northern

and central Mississippi in 1863. In these areas,

government services were interrupted and many

families became refugees, retreating to caves,

woodlands and swamps to escape the horrors of

war. In 1863 and 1864, Confederate and state

tax officials moved to commandeer resources

which had not yet been taken or destroyed.

In May 1863, as Union troops approached

Jackson, the seat of state government was moved

to Enterprise, Meridian and then Macon, before

finally settling in Columbus.

By 1865, suffering was so extreme on the home

front most Mississippians recognized the end

of the war was near. One state official, John L.

Power, observed, “Our reverses for the last two

years of the war, the despondency, speculation

and extortion of many of our people at home,

the inability of the government to pay the

troops promptly, or furnish them with anything

like adequate supplies of food or clothing, the

absolute destitution of many families of soldiers,

and, toward the last, the seeming hopelessness

of the struggle, all conspired to depress the

soldier’s heart, and caused thousands to retire

from the contest when there was greater need

for their services.” At the end of the war,

thousands of surviving ex-Confederate soldiers

made individual treks home to Mississippi to

rebuild their shattered lives with survivors of the

home front.

At the same time, thousands of African Americans

left the farms where they had worked as slaves.

Some traveled north, and others remained in

Mississippi to seek new opportunities as free men

and women.

For the state bearing its name, the Mississippi River was a blessing and a curse in war. Northern commerce flowed freely on the river prior to secession but was blockaded as the Confederacy claimed control of the river. One by one, Union navies and armies regained control of the northern and southern approaches until only Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Louisiana, remained in southern hands.

“Vicksburg is the key!” U.S. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, adding, “The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our

depot at Holly Springs, putting an end to Grant’s

campaign. Van Dorn then attempted to recapture

Corinth but lost the battle in October 1862. For

the rest of the year, the focus of the fighting in

Mississippi shifted to the river war.

In April 1863, Union Colonel Benjamin H.

Grierson struck Newton Station on the Southern

R.R. between Jackson and Meridian during what

Union General William T. Sherman called “the

greatest expedition of the war.” Southern leaders

could only weakly respond, as Grierson’s raid

was planned to coincide with Gen. Grant’s effort

to capture Vicksburg. After capturing the state

capital of Jackson in May and again in July,

In 1861, Mississippi’s roads were primitive

and difficult to travel. By contrast, the railroad

system was fairly well developed, allowing for

rapid movement of supplies and reinforcements.

The Southern R.R. of Mississippi was a vital

link for food and other necessities from west

of the Mississippi River. Likewise, the Mobile

& Ohio R.R., Mississippi Central R.R. and New

Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern R.R. were

important for moving armies. Most military

campaigns conducted by both sides were

designed to control or destroy these vital links of

transportation and supply.

After the pivotal Union victory at Shiloh,

Tennessee, in April 1862, northern forces moved

south and captured the important rail crossing of

Corinth. This move neutralized the northerly route

of Confederate rail traffic between Mississippi

and Virginia. With the fall of the Mississippi River

port cities of New Orleans in April and Memphis

in June 1862, state railway movements became

even more constricted. Union General Ulysses

S. Grant was able to use the Mississippi Central

R.R. as the axis for his initial thrust southward

to capture Vicksburg that year, but Confederate

General Earl Van Dorn destroyed Grant’s supply

pocket.” While rivers in Virginia typically drained

west to east, making them more defensible, rivers

in Mississippi drained north to south, offering

easy access to Union troops.

The war for Vicksburg and control of the

Mississippi River and its tributaries began in

spring 1862 and lasted until July 4, 1863.

The various campaigns against Vicksburg

featured many innovative strategic, tactical

and technological innovations in naval warfare,

such as ironclad warships, naval mining and

amphibious operations. When Vicksburg fell, the

South lost the use of the river, and the states west

of the river—Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas—were

cut off from the rest of the Confederacy.

Though the war stretched until 1865, once the

Confederacy lost the river, defeat was nearly assured.

Sherman’s troops began a systematic destruction

of Mississippi’s railroads. To make them unusable,

Sherman’s men stacked the rails on bonfires

built with wooden ties. When hot, the soldiers

removed the rails from the flames and wrapped

them around trees and abutments. A new term

entered the lexicon of war: “Sherman’s Neckties.”

In February 1864, Gen. Sherman effectively

destroyed the Southern R.R. between Jackson

and Meridian, leaving in his wake many miles of

“neckties.” The only Confederate-controlled rail

line in the state still functioning at the end of the

war was the portion of the Mobile & Ohio R. R.

between Tupelo and Mobile, Alabama. By 1865

the state rail system had largely ceased to exist.

In 1865, J. L. Power, superintendent of army records, tabulated Mississippi’s manpower losses in the war and presented the following report:

His figures were conservative estimates and did not consider advanced infirmities caused by poor nutrition and prolonged exposure to weather extremes, lost limbs and what today is recognized as post-traumatic stress.

theater of operations, such as the Army of

Tennessee, with several brigades fighting

west of the Mississippi River in the Trans-

Mississippi region.

Thousands of African Americans, most of

them former slaves, served in the Union army

and navy. By the end of the conflict, some

200,000 African Americans enlisted to

fight for the Union, including more than

17,000 men from Mississippi. Some

African Americans also contributed to the

Confederate war effort, mostly as teamsters

and other manual laborers, although exact

numbers are unknown.

More than 150 years ago the United States experienced its bloodiest war.

THE U.S. CIVIL WAR, lasted from April 1861 to May 1865, producing more American

casualties than WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam combined.

It remains one of the nation’s defining events.

The utter defeat at Corinth of the Confederate forces … eliminated the only mobile Southern command standing between Ulysses S. Grant’s Union army and Vicksburg. After Corinth, the way was clear for Grant to proceed on his great march of conquest.”

- Historian Peter Cozzens

MOBILIZATION

THE HOME FRONT

THE BUTCHER’S BILL

WHOLE NUMBER IN

SERVICE

DISCHARGED, RESIGNED,

RETIRED

TRANSFERRED TO OTHER

COMMANDS

DIED OF DISEASE

DESERTED OR

DROPPED

TOTAL LOSS FROM ALL

CAUSES

KILLED AND DIED OF

WOUNDS

MISSING

BALANCE ACCOUNTED

FOR

15,50078,000 2,000

11,00019,000 250

59,2501,500 8,750

MO

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S O U T H E R N O F M I S S I S S I P P I

M E M P H I S & C H A R L E S TO N

MEMPHISGRAND

JUNCTION

GRANDGULF

PORTGIBSON

RAYMOND

WOODVILLE

BAYOUSARA

CORINTH

JACKSON

CANTON

GRENADA

COLUMBUS

GAINESVILLE

McDOWELL’SBLUFF

MERIDIAN

NEWORLEANS

MOBILE

VICKSBURG

THE WAR FOR THE RAILROADS

THE WAR FOR THE RIVERS

MISSISSIPPI RAILROADSDURING THE CIVIL WAR

Admiral Porter’s fleet runs the Vicksburg blockade

17-0274-CivilWarBrochure-Revised.indd 1 7/20/17 3:16 PM

• April to June of 1862, Corinth • September 1862, Iuka • October 1862, Corinth • December 1862, Chickasaw Bayou • February to April 1863, Union Naval operations in the Delta and on the Mississippi River• May to July 1863, the Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg • April to May 1863, Grierson’s raid through Mississippi • February 1864, Meridian expedition • February 1864, Okolona • June 1864, Brices Cross Roads • July 1864, Tupelo

Grierson's raiders traveled more than 600 miles in 16 days from La Grange, Tennessee, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, arriving on May 2, 1863..

GRIERSON’S RAID

NAT

CH

EZ T

RACE

After landing at Bruinsburg, Grant’s army marched toward Port Gibson and won an all-day fight on May 1, 1863, against Confederates under Gen. John Stevens Bowen.

PORT GIBSON

In April, 1863, Union gunboats and transports successfully passed Vicksburg’s river batteries and moved downstream. After failing to silence the Confederate forts at Grand Gulf, the Union Navy transported Grant’s army ashore on the Mississippi side of the river at Bruinsburg on April 30. This was the largest amphibious landing in American history until World War II. After coming ashore, Grant’s army fought a series of battles before arriving at Vicksburg on May 18 and beginning siege operations. The siege lasted until July 4, when Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton surrendered his army and the city to Grant.

THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN

14

On May 16, 1863, near Edwards, U.S. Grant’s troops defeated Pemberton’s Army in the largest battle of the Vicksburg Campaign.

CHAMPION HILL

4

5

6

WEST POINT

TUPELO

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IER

SO

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RA

ID

1

3

BROOKHAVEN

BATON ROUGE

WALL’S BRIDGE

SUMMIT

2

9

13

11

15

COLUMBUS

WOODVILLE

BILOXI

OCEAN SPRINGSGULFPORT

8

NEW ORLEANS

BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY, AL

98

98

98

8484

84

49

90

90

9061

61

49

49

49

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8282

78

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55 59

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UNION CHURCH

HAZLEHURST

ROLLING FORK

NATCHEZ

BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON

MEMPHIS

PONTOTOC

NEW ALBANY

YAZOO PASS

COFFEEVILLE

STARKVILLE

OKOLONA

BALDWYN

LA GRANGE, TN IUKA

SHILOH, TN BATTLEFIELD

HOLLY SPRINGS

GREENWOOD

YAZOO CITY

JACKSON

HATTIESBURG

LAUREL

GARLANDVILLE

PHILADELPHIA

CORINTH

GREENVILLE

Early in 1863, the Union Navy attempted to flank Vicksburg by entering the Yazoo River via the Yazoo Pass. After entering the flooded Mississippi Delta waterways, the Union Navy got no further than Greenwood, where the Confederates constructed an earthen fort named Fort Pemberton* and blocked the channel in front of the fort by sinking the steamer Star of the West.

* Fort Pemberton is west of Greenwood on U.S. Hwy. 8

YAZOO PASS AND FORT PEMBERTON

On May 17, 1863, Union troops smashed Confederate defenses along the Big Black River.

BIG BLACK RIVER BRIDGE

Late in 1862, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant planned a two-pronged assault in the direction of Vicksburg. He sent Sherman down river with 30,000 men, while he marched south from La Grange, Tennessee, with 40,000 men, and set up his supply base at Holly Springs.

MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL RAILROAD CAMPAIGN

Confederate cavalry under Gen. Earl Van Dorn destroyed Grant’s massive supply depot at Holly Springs on December 20, 1862, forcing Grant to fall back into Tennessee and abandon the move down the Mississippi Central Railroad.

HOLLY SPRINGS

Early in 1863, Union Adm. David D. Porter made an effort to enter the Yazoo River northeast of Vicksburg by way of Steele’s Bayou. His gunboats got as far as Rolling Fork where they were trapped in Deer Creek and forced to turn back.

STEELE’S BAYOU AND ROLLING FORK

GRENADA

VICKSBURG

0

MAP LEGEND

Campaigns and Expeditions

Battles

Places of Interest

A location marked with a diamond and anumber signifies a point of interest thatis represented in the sidebar on the right

MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL RAILROAD CAM

PAIGN

YAZOO PASS EXPEDITION

YAZOO CITY

Here in 1862, a Confederate Navy Yard launched the ironclad ram CSS Arkansas. In March 1864, a Union force including African American soldiers, were attacked by Confederate cavalry.

CHICKASAW BAYOU

On December 29, 1862, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s command was defeated north of Vicksburg in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. GRAND GULF

12

On May 12, 1863, a Confederate brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. John Gregg, fought a Union corps south of Raymond.

RAYMOND

Jackson, the state capital, was occupied by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on May 14, 1863 after the Battle of Jackson. In July, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman returned and reoccupied the city after a week-long siege.

JACKSON

In February 1864, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman marched from Vicksburg to Meridian to drive Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk’s forces out of Mississippi and capture the railroad center at Meridian. During the campaign, Sherman’s troops destroyed railroad facilities and anything else of use to the Confederates.

MERIDIAN EXPEDITION

Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton’s forces established a strong defensive position here in the winter of 1862 to block Grant’s early efforts to capture Vicksburg.

GRENADA

A group of women decorated Union and Confederate graves with flowers in May 1866 at Friendship Cemetery, an act widely credited as the beginning of Memorial Day.

COLUMBUS

On February 22, 1864, Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest routed Union Brig. Gen. William Sooy Smith’s troops near Okolona.

OKOLONA

The last major battle in Mississippi was fought near present-day Tupelo between Forrest and Union Gen. A. J. Smith.

TUPELO

On June 10, 1864, about seven miles west of Baldwyn, Maj. Gen. N. B. Forrest defeated Union Gen. S. D. Sturgis at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads.

BRICES CROSS ROADS

Starting April 17, 1863, Union Cavalry Col. Benjamin H. Grierson led his famous raid through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

GRIERSON’S RAID

After victory in the Battle of Shiloh, Union forces moved south to capture Corinth and its important rail junction, Confederate troops failed to retake Corinth in a battle on October 3-4, 1862.

CORINTH

At Iuka on September 19, 1862, Union forces failed in an attempt to trap a Confederate army under Major General Sterling Price.

IUKA

Ship Island was used as the staging area for the Union’s capture of New Orleans in the spring of 1862, and the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. As many as 18,000 Union troops, including one of the first African American regiments in the Union army, were stationed on Ship Island.

SHIP ISLAND

MERIDIAN720

BATTLE OF RAYMOND

20NEWTON10

2 HOLLY SPRINGSMarshall County Historical Museum ............................662-252-3669

3 BALDWYN Mississippi's Final Stands Interpretive Center................................662-365-3969

4 TUPELO Tupelo National Battlefield .... 662-680-4025, 800-305-7417

5 WEST POINT Waverly Plantation Mansion..... 662-494-1399, 800-920-3533

6 COLUMBUS Friendship Cemetery...........662- 328-5252

7 MERIDIAN

Merrehope.........................601-483-8439

8 GRENADA Grenada Lake .....................800-373-2571

9 GREENWOOD Museum of The Mississippi Delta..................................662-453-0925

11 RAYMOND Raymond Military Park............ 601-201-1632

12 JACKSON Manship House Museum ........ 601-961-4724

Mississippi Governor's Mansion ............................... 601-359-3195Oaks House Museum.............. 601-353-9339Old Capitol Museum............... 601-576-6920

13 PORT GIBSONGrand Gulf Military Park ......... 601-437-5911Port Gibson Chamber of Commerce............................. 601-437-4351

Ruins of Windsor................... 601-446-6502

14 NATCHEZ Melrose ................................. 601-442-7047The William Johnson House ..... 601-442-7047Historic Jefferson College........ 601-442-2901

15 BILOXI

Beauvoir, the Last Home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis...... 228-436-3123

1 CORINTH Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center .............................. 662-287-9273Verandah-Curlee House ..... 800-748-9048

Crossroads Museum ......... 662-287-3120

10 VICKSBURG The Old Depot Museum .......... 601-638-6500Old Court House Museum ......601-636-0741

Vicksburg National MilitaryPark ..................................601-636-0583

POINTS INTERESTof

Mississippi was the site of many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. More than a century and a half later, you can still visit a number of Mississippi Civil War sites. They include Vicksburg National Military Park, home of the USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum, and the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, near Shiloh National Military Park. Some of the significant engagements of the Civil War fought in Mississippi are:

• April to May of 1862, Corinth• September 1862, Iuka • October 1862, Corinth• December 1862, Chickasaw Bayou• February to April 1863, Union Naval operations in the Delta and on the Mississippi River• May to July 1863, the Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg1861 1865

CIVIL WAR • April to May 1863, Grierson’s raid through Mississippi • February 1864, Meridian expedition• February 1864, Okolona• June 1864, Brices Cross Roads• July 1864, Tupelo

VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN

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